Ranked Play Won’t Save COD Warzone 2

At this point in the Call of Duty cycle, it is no secret that Warzone 2 failed to meet the expectations of developers and players alike. Both sides had their own image of what the sequel to Caldera would look like, and that has brought us to Ranked Play as one final push to keep the community happy.

Having any kind of competitive mode is always a great addition to multiplayer FPS games, and we already saw plenty of success with the mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer. But the issues go much deeper than a lack of Ranked Play in Al Mazrah, despite the mode being something entirely new for the Battle Royale. Ranked already appears to have some contentious decisions, and even in a perfect world, Warzone 2 does not seem to stand a chance unless some real change is made.

New Modes Like Ranked Play Don’t Fix the Warzone 2 Problem

Plenty of additions that were made to this iteration of the Call of Duty Battle Royale were undoubtedly well made. Al Mazrah, for example, is probably the map with the best design that we have seen for BR in COD. Weapons are also incredibly satisfying to use, which makes the main gameplay loop that much easier to participate in. That is only the base of what went well in Warzone 2 though.

Everyone that plays the Battle Royale knows that the TTK is far too quick. Mix this with the lack of movement, and you have a recipe for a Battle Royale that rewards slow players that hit the first shot. And when I say movement, I do not mean slide canceling. That mechanic is terrible and was never fun, even if some players will yell all day about it. Movement also includes penalties for sliding in general, as well as penalties to jump shots, both of which are a problem in COD Warzone 2.

When you get a penalty for moving and shooting, the response will always be to play slow, especially on larger maps. The only movement that was not penalized was going prone, and guess what? Now snaking is more prominent than ever, especially in COD MW2 Multiplayer. There is no world where Ranked Play fixes any of these issues. In fact, a mode that utilizes ranks and SR will only aggravate the problem. Even in casuals, players that cannot get past silver and gold will play like their life depends on it for practice.

Do not forget that Warzone 2 was also founded on the use of AI. Whether this was a general decision, or because of the integration of COD DMZ, it does not work in the Battle Royale and the community has been vocal about that. Regardless, there will be AI in the Ranked Play mode. They will be weaker, but they are still there, and will likely still continue to sabotage matches or crash the server. Once again, slapping SR earnings on that will only make it worse.

Ranked Play Hype Will Fizzle Out in Mere Weeks

The general player base will get bored of this mode incredibly fast if they do not quit out of frustration early on. We can look at how well Ranked Play did in Modern Warfare 2 to get a gauge of what will happen in Warzone 2. For Ranked Multiplayer, there was a surge in players that wanted to test themselves in 4v4 competitive modes. There was a lot of hype for the first season, but it quickly died out. Even I was burnt out by the time I reached Crimson. Most players will never pass Silver or Gold.

Modern Warfare 2’s Ranked Play started out well and is one of the best modes we have seen in the franchise for competitive play. However, cheaters quickly started spoiling the experience, which has only become worse. Solo play was also a terrible idea for anyone that wants to play beyond Platinum. All of these issues will only get worse in Ranked Play for Warzone 2. Balance will be nearly impossible to achieve like it is with 4v4.

Warzone should not be subjected to yet another avenue of criticism until the other aspects of the game are ironed out. The community still cannot even decide if there are enough Buy Stations or if the sniper changes are sufficient. Snipers themselves became much more powerful recently with one shot builds, and some players flip-flopped to where they wanted them out once again.

Sure, Warzone 2 is a lesser version of the mode that so many COD fans fell in love with, but this could also just be a problem with a changing community and industry.

Ranked Play in Warzone 2 Will Struggle to Feel Competitive

Anyone who sticks to this mode will likely learn that competitive battle royales are hard to pull off. There are tons of random elements and situations that are impossible to calculate. It is just another reason why a competitive mode is not going to fix the issues at hand. Warzone 2 has tons of design issues that make the game boring and unappealing to plenty of players, casual or not.

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There is a reason player numbers are falling. It seems to be a mix of burnout on MW2, fatigue with the Battle Royale genre, and simply too many mistakes with Warzone 2. Slapping a seal on the player leak is only going to work for a couple of weeks before we are back to the same issues. But hey, at least we have 3,000 COD Point bundles coming out now.